ATLANTA — Will Zalatoris has withdrawn from the PGA Tour Championship and Presidents Cup due to two herniated discs.
Zalatoris was expected to be the third seed in the FedEx Cup final stage and the race for the US$18 million grand prize. That means he would have started the tournament three shots off the lead.
Due to his withdrawal, only 29 golfers will participate in the tournament and they will all keep their current position in the standings. Scottie Scheffler will start the tournament leading Thursday at East Lake.
The injury is serious enough that Zalatoris also withdrew from the Presidents Cup, scheduled for September 22-25 in Quail Hollow, North Carolina. Zalatoris finished seventh in the standings, one spot from automatic qualification, but he was almost guaranteed to be one of the captain’s picks.
Zalatoris, second at the PGA Championship and U.S. Open this year, won the St. Jude Championship two weeks ago in three-hole overtime. He thus won a first PGA title and confirmed his place among the new generation of stars.
However, he retired from the BMW Championship on Saturday due to what he described as back discomfort. He was injured on the third hole of the third round. He was hoping that a little rest and some treatment would be enough to get him back on track for the FedEx Cup Grand Finals.
“After Will’s withdrawal from the BMW Championship on Saturday, his medical team determined that the source of his back pain was two herniated discs. Unfortunately, this means Will will not be able to play this week at the Tour Championship,” his agent Allen Hobbs said in a statement released by the PGA.
Zalatoris, 26, has climbed to ninth in the world in just two full seasons on the PGA Tour.
